Fun Town worker hit by coaster

Definitely a future Darwin candidate. Shouldn't be long before he's successful and gets his award.

Idiot.

I second the nomination...

He's lucky no one on the coaster was hurt. Putting a trash can on the tracks?!? Sheesh.

I can't understand why so many people find the concept of lockout/tagout so difficult. If you look at fatalities amoung park employees, this is number one. (But then it's number 2 amoung all OSHA fatalities.)

If there is one thing I hate its stupidity and I can't understand why they call it an accident. When a ride is in operation common sense should tell you to stay away from it. I have no sympathy for stupid people.

Something tells me there's a lot more to this story. The way the article claims it happened... I just can't imagine such a lack of respect for your own safety as well as the safety of the children on the ride. Unreal.

Recently, when I was at Wonderpark in Cincinnati one of the managers was cleaning around the Boa Squeeze coaster as it was running. He had begun cleaning before the ride left the station, but while the ride was in operation he remained still, and as far away from the tracks as possible. To me, this guy did everything the right way, and completed his job. He has a healthy amount of respect for what kind of damage even a kiddie coaster can do to a person. Plus, he also didn't set a trash can on the tracks, (Geez!...what a moron!!)

Seriously though, I'm glad everyone was ok, including the maintenance guy.

Having been right there when it happened, it was a very disturbing sight. From our vantage point we only could see trash being thrown over the deck area under the coaster, the station was in our way. The employee was in an area he should have known he should not be in. He also could have easily emptied ther trash can from the queue line of the coaster. The Operator hit the E-Stop but too much of the train was over the lift at that time and gravity took over.

Danimales, trust me, it happened exactly as it was printed. It was a shame that this happened but I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by the GP who were helping the Park Personell until the police and Para-Medics arrived.

Personally, I think that it was the employee's fault. He shouldn't have been working at the park if he was going to be that careless.

If it's my park, and you violate lockout/tagout, you're fired, simple as that. Glad that the results weren't MUCH worse in this instance...

Now the story gets weirder. You can just see from this follow up article that the parents are looking to sue, but where is the injured employee? This will be fun to follow.

Article

(Edited by gregleg to fix link)

*** This post was edited by GregLeg 3/30/2005 10:26:19 PM ***

Chadley:

If the coaster was running, he shouldn't have been cleaning around it. It's not only common sense, but also Federal law that if you are inside the barricade working, the coaster has to be locked out. It's just too easy for someone the miss judge or not realize that the ride is starting.